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Tucked away in a quiet Johannesburg neighborhood, I walk into a house and feel immediately and oddly at peace. The air smells clean and aromatic, and I am drawn to the back door, where a flight of stairs brings me into a flourishing garden.

Welcome to the world of Gandhi in Johannesburg, one of several houses where this peaceful warrior gained inspiration in his satyagraha movement—passive resistance to political injustice. In fact, this refuge is named Satyagraha, and today it’s a museum and guest house infused with his spirit.

The traditionally gritty port city of Baltimore is not the first place you think of when it comes to coolness. And probably not the second, third or even fourth. But one week a year, all that changes, during the international Light City Festival.

When 17th-century finance minister Nicolas Fouquet set about building his château in what’s now the Paris suburbs, he spared no expense. He hired the best architect of the day, Louis Le Vau, to build the best money could buy. Painter Charles Le Brun and landscape architect André le Nôtre were tapped as well. And then Fouquet hosted a lavish housewarming party … his mistake.